
DATE: Friday, September 19, 1997            TAG: 9709190848

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   95 lines

BEACH STARTS STUDY ON SKATEBOARD PARK TO SEE WHAT'S WANTED

Four months after banning skateboarders from the resort area, the city is making good on its promise to explore building a park exclusively for free-wheelin' youths.

Parks and Recreation Department officials have formed a Special Projects Team to tackle the issue, and their first task is evaluating how much community support exists.

That will be determined, in part, by a survey being distributed today at local surf and skating shops, golf courses and recreation centers.

``We need to find out if there is a need and if so, how do we make this kind of activity available?'' said Pete Hangen, one of six team members.

The deadline to comment is Oct. 3, although Hangen said the team will continue gathering facts and eventually hold public meetings to involve more citizens.

Then they must report back to the City Council.

If the survey shows residents want the park, Virginia Beach officials need not look any farther than Chesapeake for a model on how to build it using a public/private partnership.

Four years ago, skateboarding was outlawed in certain sections of that city. Skaters banned together and convinced city officials that there was a need for a park.

``The skate park was a project of the kids,'' said Kenny Stuart, a recreation supervisor with Chesapeake's Department of Parks and Recreation. ``It was democracy at its best.''

Residents, youth and officials formulated a plan where businesses would donate materials, and volunteers would build the project according to designs made by the skaters themselves.

The result was a 10,000-square-foot facility in the Greenbrier area that accommodates skateboarders and in-line skaters. The park, built in 1994, has a spine ramp, hip ramp, three-quarter pipe, two middle islands and a concrete street course with two ramps, a rail and other obstacles.

The park is staffed by Parks and Recreation employees, and users pay a small fee - $3 for resident youths ages 9 to 17, $8 for anyone 18 and older, and $4 for a one-day visitor's pass. These passes also allow Chesapeake residents admission to the city's six community centers for a year.

Non-residents can buy a skate park-only pass for the same price.

City figures show that about 610 skaters use it each month.

The park ranks among the top five in the United States, Stuart said.

The International Association of Skateboard Companies estimates that there are about 6.2 million youth and adult skateboarders, and some 300 public and private skateboarding parks nationwide.

Stuart said he fields dozens of calls from communities dealing with the same issue throughout the country.

Roanoke, for example, is grappling with the same topic, said John Coates, director of Roanoke City Parks and Recreation.

Coates and civic leaders there have been working with a group of skateboarders for a year about how to build a skateboarding-only park. Funding is Coates' major concern, although, he said, ``we're hoping within the next six months we'll have a place for the kids to skate.''

Hangen said he and other Virginia Beach officials have visited Chesapeake's park, and they're learning about other cities' efforts.

The skateboarding issue arose in Virginia Beach in May, when the City Council passed an ordinance banning skateboarding on any surface east of Pacific Avenue from Rudee Inlet to 42nd Street, expanding a ban that began with the sidewalks east of Pacific, the Boardwalk and Oceanfront parks and plazas.

The sport was banned because of concerns about property damage and injuries.

Currently, the only facilities available to Beach skateboarders are a privately owned skate park in the Lynnhaven area and two ``bowls'' at Mount Trashmore Park.

Beach residents and skateboarders Brian Woelfel, 24, and Eric Cardenas, 22, said they drive to Chesapeake at least twice a week to skate.

``We started getting hassled about skating so we started coming out here,'' Woelfel said this week while pulling on knee pads at the Greenbrier park. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Brian Woelfel, 24, of Virginia Beach has to go to neighboring

Chesapeake in order to find a facility where he can go

skateboarding. Beach officials may build a skate park when

community support can be determined.

Graphic

SURVEY QUESTIONS

Do we need public skate park(s) in Virginia Beach? Yes or no.

Should public funds be used to build, maintain and staff skate

parks? Yes or no.

Where should the skate park(s) be built?

What times would you use it? Morning, afternoon or evening in the